16th MAP (Management Association of Pakistan) 2014

Monday, September 08, 2014
Hiba Moeen
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The 16th MAP Convention hosted a thought provoking session for managers and thought leaders representing various sectors. It was organised by MAP Convention while the founding partner was EBM, the theme of the convention was ‘Re-think Management’. It aimed at reinforcing management practices and leader styles for the success of businesses in the long run.

Organizations carving their journey through evolutionary business patterns have always been at the forefront of business success stories as a result of which they eventually make it to the Fortune 500 companies, be it adapting to the rapidly changing business environment or fostering employees through empowerment, inculcating the sense of ownership in every individual is what results to accomplishments in the long run. Shedding light on such matters, the MAP convention contributed towards a positive day.

Management Association of Pakistan is a 50 year old body created to assist the business community as their think tank of ideas so that the best management practices could be implemented for generating productivity and future growth. Each year this convention gathers businesspersons and from across the country and executes a thought provoking session thus inviting local as well as international speakers.

Following a welcome address by Mr. Masood Hashmi, Vice President MAP and a speech by Wajahat Hussain, President and CEO of UBL, the day commenced with an engaging session by Tony Buzan, the inventor of Mind Maps. Not only did he make the audience realize the dull norms of performing our daily tasks but also the need to innovate our thinking style. He emphasized upon the use of colour in our daily lives despite us being adults and the need of daydreaming, the lack of which limits new business ideas and blurs creativity.

As people age, their creativity depletes which Buzan explained by giving an example of children who are 95% creative all the way to adults whose creativity reduces to just 10%, what’s in between is the gradual decline in one’s creative thinking. “This is why the world is getting depressed, the average creativity is growing down and average life expectancy is growing up”, he said while explaining the concept of this decline being considered ‘normal’ because if this is normal then it’s not natural and hence a depressing concept. In a nutshell, not day dreaming is not natural and oddly enough our brain’s utility is less than 1%.

The relationship of creativity with age is therefore something as follows:

KG Children: 95% +, Primary: 75%, Senior School 50%, University: 25%, Adults: 10%, and it has been going down …

Discussing further, Buzan explained the evolution of mind, the journey of which started with the Agrarian era almost 10,000 years back and is now leading to the Age of Intelligence, a time period swamped with information. Stressing upon the need of organizing through mind mapping he said: “Mind mappers are taking democracy to the next stage, the former president of Mexico mind mapped everything and facilitated a positive change in the first time in 70 years.”

Later the CMO of PTCL, Furqan Qureshi presented the gradual technological advance and it’s impact of society talking of which the need to be equipped in terms of the right technology for communication was talked about.

The panel discussion based on ‘Leadership through Leading Minds’ comprised of Nadeem Naqvi (MD, KSE), Dr. Zeelaf Munir (EBM), Sirajuddin Aziz (President and CEO, HMBL), Kimilhide Ando (CEO, Pakistan Mitsubishi Corp), Ali Hasnain (Head – Retail Banking UBL), and Asif Juma (CEO, ICI Pakistan Ltd). Each individual shared their opinions based on their experience and expertise the conclusion of which rested on the notion that a leader is s person who is able to observe the best capabilities in his/her employees and creates avenues of growth of them.

“Transformational leadership is about making the employees think and believe they can do the inconceivable,” voiced Ali Hasnain while Dr. Zeelaf supported the discussion by adding, “One should be mindful of the rapid development and should be able to recognize the emerging patterns of change. We, therefore, need to identify as to who it is that we will be leading. The rising generation, must focus on creating change that is sustainable, devising new ways to live and work that fit with the needs of this world.” “Research shows that companies having high representation of women perform better. One such recent study reports that fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors attained significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those with the lowest representation of women board directors,” said she highlighting the prominence and importance of women’s significance in corporations.

“There are no textbook solutions; a leader should be good at combining the employees’ strong competencies and should lead those who are professionally better than him,” elaborated Kimilhide Ando while detailing the role of a leader.

The day was further made interesting amidst the host, Dr. S. A. Rub’s enthralling poetic outbursts, not only did he entertain everyone by reading out some verses but also made the audience repeat after him.

One of the best presentations was given by Lucy Cornell (http://youtu.be/55NwZv2hmbo), 1the Chief Inspirational Officer of Voice Coach. Capturing the audience with her excellent training capabilities she made two way communication very evident. Discussing the historic speech by Martin Luther King of Stone Mountain Georgia, she guided the audience about the inflection and charisma in order to create a visceral connection, “You need to have commitment, courage and energy. Your voice follows your intention; you can still be inspiring without yelling and simply connect to the feeling of it,” she elaborated, “If it’s all emotional then it’s noise.”

The next panel discussion focused on HR management and concluded that those in the organization are not mere employees but people who need to be valued and publicly given credit for contributing towards the organisation’s goals. Sharing their expertise for this discussion were